Lazy Girl Protein Hacks for Busy Weeks

If hitting your protein goals feels overwhelming, time-consuming, or impossible during busy weeks, this episode is for you. In today’s episode of Isn't She Powerful, we’re talking about realistic, low-effort ways to eat more protein without spending hours meal prepping or cooking from scratch.

Because healthy eating doesn’t need to be perfect to work.

I’m sharing simple “lazy girl” protein hacks that can help you stay fuller, reduce cravings, support your energy levels, and make healthy eating feel easier (even during chaotic seasons of life).

We’re covering easy protein staples to keep on hand, quick meal ideas, convenience foods that actually help, and mindset shifts that make consistency more realistic.

If you’ve ever thought:

• “I don’t have time to cook.”
• “Healthy eating feels complicated.”
• “I’m starving by the end of the day.”
• “I keep snacking because nothing sounds filling.”

…this episode will help you simplify your approach.

In This Episode, We Talk About:

• Why protein doesn’t need to come from “perfect” meals
• Lazy girl protein hacks that save time and mental energy
• Easy protein foods to keep stocked during busy weeks
• The importance of convenience when building healthy habits
• Why repeating meals can actually make healthy eating easier
• Small ways to add more protein without overhauling your diet
• How eating enough protein can help with cravings and food noise
• The mindset shift that helps you stay consistent during stressful seasons

This episode is a reminder that consistency matters more than perfection, and that healthy habits should support your life, not make it harder.

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WORK WITH ME: 

• Seismic Shift: Group Health Coaching (code POWERFUL for 10% off)
• 1:1 Coaching

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💌 Connect With Laura:

1. Website: Health Coach for Teachers & Busy, Working Women
2. Instagram: LAURA B. | Teacher turned Health Coach | Podcaster🎙️ (@laura.b.healthy) • Instagram photos and videos
3. TikTok: Laura B. | Health Coach (@laura.b.healthy) | TikTok

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Topics covered: protein hacks, lazy girl meals, high protein snacks, meal prep shortcuts, food noise, cravings, healthy habits, easy protein ideas, realistic nutrition, healthy eating made simple, busy week meals, sustainable weight loss, protein tips for women

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, hey, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Isn She Powerful Podcast. Today we are going to be talking about protein, and I must say, I feel like I've been doing nothing but talking about protein and fiber on my podcast for a lot of the recent episodes. Like I feel like you might be tired of hearing me talk about protein and fiber because you're like, we get it. We need to eat our protein and fiber. But today I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about how to get those protein goals met, even whenever you're like, I'm too lazy for all of this. Reaching the protein goals is too hard. It requires too much work and too much effort. And I just am too lazy for this, or I'm too busy for this. I don't have the time to do this. I don't have the time to think about it in advance. I don't have the time to actually implement any of this. So I want to spend this episode helping you build up some habits and some just get some ideas about how you can make protein an a thing in your life. How can you be more consistent with eating your protein and be a lazy or busy person at the same time? So, with all that said, let's get into it. Welcome to the Isn't You Powerful Podcast. I'm your host, Laura B, health coach, educator, and founder of the Be Healthy Lifestyle. I'm here to bring you all of the health education and motivation so that you can sign off each week feeling equipped and empowered to tackle all of your health goals. Come along with me as I teach you the basics of healthy living so that you can help everyone in your life saying, Isn't she powerful? So the thing that I first want to point out is that when you are really busy and like you're running around, you've got so much going on, that is the times whenever reaching your protein goals is even more important than it normally is. And the reason for that is because our bodies require energy to do all of those things, right? To run to your kids' soccer game, to get yourself to work, to get your kids where they need to go, to get your family where they need to be. Everything that you are doing, running around all the time, doing this, that, and the other, it requires energy from you, whether that be physical energy because you're moving your body or mental and emotional energy. Your body needs energy, physical energy in order to make all of those things happen. And so it's going to require more food from you in order to make all of the busy things happen. So those weeks, whenever you're like, oh my gosh, I'm looking at my calendar, we've got something going on every night this week. It's a busy week at work, and you're just feeling like you know you're gonna be feeling like your wheels are spinning all week long. Those are the weeks when it's actually more important that you reach your protein goals. But that doesn't mean that you need to like put all this extra focus into it and it's another thing on your plate, and then that becomes something that you feel bad about because you end up having to give up on it because it's impossible to do everything. Instead, I want to give you a few things that you can start doing, just little hacks or little mindset shifts that you can take and implement on those busy weeks to help you not feel like your protein goals are not being met in the way that they should be. Because what's gonna happen is if you don't eat this protein and fiber, you're gonna feel really hungry all day long, or you're going to feel super hungry at night. You're gonna spend all day under-eating, and then in the evenings, you're gonna feel like you cannot stop eating. So it's gonna be one of those two things. You either have the munchies all day long, or by the time you get to the evening, you're starving and you stuff down whatever you can find. So that's what we're trying to avoid. But if you are really busy, eating protein and fiber is the way to make sure that you avoid that situation. That's why I've been talking about protein and fiber so much. On this podcast, we talk a lot about getting rid of your food noise and your sugar cravings. And the number one thing that needs to be done to make that happen is reaching your protein and fiber goals. And so in this episode, I just want to dig into the ideas of how to make that a bit easier for you. Number one is protein first meal plans. So hopefully you are writing down the meals that you've you and your family are going to have throughout the week. Hopefully that's a conversation that you're having in advance versus waiting until the moment that you're about to eat to decide what are we gonna eat? You're standing in front of the pantry or you're driving down the road, about to pull up into a drive-thru. Hopefully that's a situation that you're avoiding already. And if it is, when you make those meal plans, put protein as the top priority. The number one question that Shane asks me every single week. I say, Hey, any ideas of what we want to eat for dinner this week? And his response every single time is, what protein are we gonna eat this week? We center our entire meal plan around a protein source. I rotate through proteins based on where I'm at in my monthly cycle. So when I'm on my period or in the days leading up to my period, I'm eating beef. In the week leading up to my period, I'm eating ground turkey usually. And then in the couple weeks after my period, before ovulation, I eat a lot of chicken. So I rotate through. So that's always his first question. What protein are we on this week? Center your meals around a protein source. It is going to make your life so much easier. Whenever you're like, okay, we have chicken. What are we gonna do with that chicken and how can we build a meal around it? Versus let's have some pasta, a pasta meal this week. Your thought isn't first of all, what protein goes with the pasta. It's what type of sauce do we want to have? What do what what type of pasta noodle do we want to have? So instead of centering it around like let's have lasagna or let's have pizza, instead center it around what protein source you're gonna have. And that's gonna make it a lot easier to hit those protein goals. So when you're meal planning, center it around protein, protein first meal plans. Number two is to swap out some of the traditional things that you're eating for protein options of those things. Like, for example, if you and your family, especially children, if you guys eat cereal for breakfast, you're typically somebody who eats like Lucky Charms or Fruity Pebbles or whatever it may be, and you put those in a in a cup a bowl of milk, instead, find a way to add protein to that. So you could do like a really protein-heavy milk, like a fair life, or even a protein shake as the milk, like a pre-made protein shake would be really great for that. A vanilla one would be really wonderful, or do it over yogurt instead. So get yourself just one of those cups of yogurt, add in the same amount of cereal that you would normally be eating, and now you're eating it on a base of protein rather than eating it just as cereal, which is usually very high in carbs and sugar. So if we can balance that out with some protein, you are going to feel so much better. Pasta is another really good example of this. There's a lot of pasta options that have more protein in them: chickpea pasta, lentil pasta, whole grain pasta, those are three that have really good amounts of protein in them. There's also like, I think Barilla makes a protein plus pasta, and there's some of those on the market as well that you can find. But personally, I love reaching for chickpea pasta and lentil pasta. Those are gonna be a really good source of both protein and fiber to give your body a little bit extra to work through so that you have that extra energy to get you through everything that you have going on in the day. There's also options for you to like use easier protein sources than what you're currently eating, right? Like rotisserie chicken. Nobody said you have to cook your chicken yourself. Get a rotisserie chicken or get the frozen grilled chicken out of the frozen section of the grocery store. Those are still really good options, high-quality options that you don't have to spend a bunch of time making. The protein milk that I mentioned earlier, you could also add that to coffee. If you're a coffee drinker, that's the first thing you put on your stomach in the mornings. I would first of all love to see you switch that around and have something for breakfast first, some food in your stomach first, and then the coffee, or at least food in addition to the coffee. But if you are going to have your coffee on an empty stomach, protein milk is a really good option as a way to add something to that. So just get one of those protein shakes, a vanilla protein shake, and put that into your coffee instead of milk or whatever you're normally putting in. Now, number three kind of piggybacks off of that. I might might have gotten ahead of myself a little bit, but this hack is to stop putting the unrealistic expectation on yourself that you are going to cook something from scratch every single day. Like the idea that you are going to have the energy to come home at the end of every day and get into the kitchen and cook a fresh meal is unrealistic. And you're setting yourself up for failure by expecting yourself to do that. So instead, let's shift away from I have to cook every single day and find other ways around this situation. One of my clients has really latched on to the cook once-eat twice method that I teach about in my coaching program, seismic shift. And all this simply means is you cook a meal once, you double the recipe so that you can put half of it away to have again on a second day, either the next day or two days later. This is the entire method that me and my husband live by in my kitchen at my house because it is the easiest thing. I do not cook every single night. I'm not going to cook every single night. That sounds terrible. So the cook once-eat twice method is a really easy way to save yourself a lot of time and a lot of energy in the kitchen. Another way that you can save yourself that time and energy is by using sources of protein that you don't have to spend a bunch of time cooking. I already talked about rotisserie chicken. It's pre-cooked. You can get one that's already warm and then you don't even have to warm it back up, but you can also get one and put it in the fridge and have it ready to go. I go ahead, like I get a rotisserie chicken sometimes on the weekends. I peel it all off the bone and then I chop it up and put it in the refrigerator so that I can use it throughout the week on tacos or salads or a quesadilla, maybe, so that I don't have to spend so much time cooking during the week. But again, frozen chicken breasts, those count. Pre-made protein shakes, those count. Little cups of yogurt that you don't have to do anything with. You don't have to package this up and do anything with it. You just grab it and take it with you. As long as you got a spoon, you are good to go. You could get hard boiled eggs that are already hard-boiled for you. Also, there's a lot of vegetables and canned foods that are really great for this as well. Beans have a really good amount of protein and fiber in them. So get canned beans. They take a couple of minutes to warm up. Like you can literally put them in a bowl in the microwave and warm them up there. You don't have to do a lot to get the beans ready. And this is an easy protein source and something that you can easily add into some of your meals. Same thing with vegetables like peas. Peas have a really good amount of protein in them as well. And then also, there's vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Those also have protein in them. So look for these other ways that you can get some protein in that you can use to bulk your meals up, and they can be really simple things that you don't have to put a lot of effort into making. Hack number four that I recommend for you is that you have a list of some of your go-to proteins and you keep those on hand in your house so that you can reach for those in a pinch in a moment's need when you're like, oh my gosh, I completely forgot that I need lunch for tomorrow, or I'm feeling really hungry today for some reason. What can I have? You want to have some easy protein sources around for those situations. So I've already mentioned it, but little Greek yogurt cups, cottage cheese is a good example, string cheese, or those other little like cheese, the tillamil cheeses that just come in the little packages, right? Like those are the easiest protein sources that you can keep around. Deli turkey is pretty much always in my refrigerator. I pretty much always have Hermel Natural Choice deli turkey in my refrigerator, and I'm constantly eating that as a snack or pairing it with a slice of cheese, rolling it up and turning it into meat and cheese roll-ups as a snack in the afternoons. The easiest way to get in extra protein. You could do packs of tuna or packs of chicken. Those are also really good sources of protein that you can carry with you. They don't have to be kept cold. You don't have to do anything with them to get them ready to eat. You just open the package with a fork and you eat it. And that's very, very easy. There are ways to get this protein in that don't require a lot of effort from you. So in my house personally, some of the things that I always have on hand: Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, deli turkey, protein shakes, pre-made protein shakes, frozen meatballs, chicken sausages, protein cereals such as Catalina Crunch. Those things have made a permanent home in my house. And whenever it runs out, I just grab some more, and they are the easiest ways to add extra protein to a meal. So find these little things that you can add to your pantry, to your refrigerator, and your freezer and keep those on hand and make sure that you keep them visible. You want to be able to see these things. When you open your pantry, they should be the things that are front and center. When you open your refrigerator or your freezer, that should be what's on eye level, right there in the front, so that you can see those things because we are so much more likely to choose the things that we immediately see. So if you're keeping things that in your pantry that, you know, are the potato chips and the cookies and the things like that, and those are the things that are right there at eye level, you're so much more likely to choose that stuff. Put these things that are the healthy options right in the front so that you have access to them all the time and you remember that they're there. Now, my last lazy girl hack for getting in more protein is to repeat your meals on purpose. We often think that our meal plans they need to look glamorous and we need to have something special about them and we can never eat the same thing twice, and we need this variety in our lives. And I'm not saying you need to eat the same thing every single day, but I am saying that get yourself on a rotation throughout the month so that you're not eating the same thing all the time, but you're also not coming up with new ideas all the time. I teach my clients when it comes to breakfast, have about three to five options of things that you can repeat and say, week A is this option, week B is this option, week C is this option, and when I get done with week C, we go back to week A. So you're only having these meals about once a month, but they're easy. You remember them, they're your go-tos. You don't have to think much about them, you don't have to put a lot of effort into them. You're not eating them all the time so much that you get bored by them, but you're not also having to come up with something new every single week and feeling like you're spinning your wheels and you're getting tired of surfing the internet, trying to figure out something new to eat this week. So get those few meals that you really like and enjoy and put them in a notebook. Write down a list of like, hey, these are all the things that we like to do with chicken. This is all the things that we like to do with turkey. This is all my favorite breakfast options. Make those lists, and then throughout the weeks, whenever you're sitting down to make that meal plan, just grab one. Pick and choose from this list of things that you enjoy eating. Repeat your meals on purpose. Keep your life simple, keep your meal plan simple, and you are so much more likely to stick to eating this healthy meal plan. Now, with all of this being said, this is so much of how I help my clients, both in my group coaching program, Seismic Shift, and in one-on-one coaching. I help you understand what a healthy, well-balanced meal looks like? How can we start doing it more efficiently and effectively to fit your life? Not this ideal life that the person on the internet's living or you would like to be living, but your real life with what you have going on every day. How can we make health and wellness fit that? Because you are tired, you are busy, you do have a lot going on, and health and wellness should be a piece of the puzzle, not the entire puzzle that you're trying to put together in the midst of doing everything else in life. So if you would like my help, I would also love so much to get to help you with through again my group coaching program, Seismic Shift or one-on-one coaching. The information for both of those is down in the show notes below. To recap, our lazy girl hacks for getting in protein more easily. Have a protein first meal plan. When you sit down to make that meal plan on the weekends or whenever it is that you make it, protein should be the first question. What proteins do we have in the freezer? What protein do I want to eat this week? How can I build meals around that protein source? Number two, start looking for easy ways to swap out some of the things you're currently eating for more protein-heavy options. How can I switch out my milk? How can I switch out the base of this meal? How can I switch out something that I'm eating here? Like if the meal has a lot of bacon in it, how can I switch that bacon out for something that has more protein to it and it's gonna help give me more nutrients, right? So find these little protein swaps that you can make. Number three, stop expecting yourself to cook everything from scratch and make healthy eating easier for you. Simplify your life. Get those things that are pre-made, get the things that are easy to come together in just a couple of minutes and make your situation of having to cook as easy and seamless as possible. Number four, keep really easy protein sources on hand as often as you can. Get yourself a list of your favorite protein sources, keep those things in your pantry, freezer, and refrigerator and keep them visible right there front and center when you open up those things so that you can see them. They are right there in your face and you remember to eat those things. And number five is to repeat on purpose. Keep it simple. When it's simple, it is sustainable. So you want to use the same recipes over and over, and you don't have to eat the same thing every single day, but you should be having a rotation throughout the month of very similar recipes because when you do that, you're gonna make sure that you don't get tired of them, but you also don't have to come up with something new every single time you sit down to make a meal plan. I hope that you enjoyed this episode of the Isn't She Powerful Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. I look forward to seeing you in the next episode and getting the ability to work with some of you in my coaching programs. See you next time. Thank you so much. I can't wait to see you again next week. And always remember the more you know, the more you grow.